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Blue Jackets Recall Carson Meyer Under Emergency Conditions

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The Blue Jackets summoned forward Carson Meyer from the AHL’s Cleveland Monsters on an emergency loan Sunday, per a team release. As such, his recall does not count toward Columbus’ four permitted post-deadline recalls.

Justin Danforth’s illness-related absence forced Columbus to play a skater short against the Predators yesterday in a 2-1 loss. Despite the roster limit no longer being in place and having ample cap space, the Blue Jackets have opted to carry a trim roster and leave as many players with their AHL club as possible as they approach the postseason.

Meyer, 26, will slot into the lineup on Tuesday against the Canadiens if Danforth isn’t ready to return, which seems likely given they’ve recalled him multiple days in advance of the contest. It’s his first recall of the season after being waived and assigned to Cleveland during training camp.

A 2017 sixth-round pick of the Blue Jackets, the Ohio native is in his fourth season of pro hockey after two seasons with Miami University and two more with Ohio State. He’s second on the Monsters in goals, scoring 22 times and adding 15 assists for 37 points in 55 games with a -1 rating. He has a goal and four points in 27 NHL games since debuting in the 2021-22 campaign.

Meyer’s possession numbers have been okay in his major-league time, recording a 49.2 CF% and a 42.0 xGF% in his limited even-strength minutes. He’s been used exclusively in a fourth-line role, averaging nine minutes per game throughout his NHL action.

Columbus signed Meyer to a third straight one-year deal last summer, paying him $775K in the NHL and $190K in the minors with a $210K guarantee. He’ll remain under team control this summer as an RFA with arbitration rights.

Blackhawks Sign Landon Slaggert

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The Blackhawks have inked one of their more intriguing prospects, signing forward Landon Slaggert to a two-year, entry-level deal, per a team announcement. The deal, which begins immediately, carries a $912.5K cap hit, per Mario Tirabassi of CHGO Sports.

As such, Slaggert will be eligible to make his NHL debut for Chicago down the stretch. The 21-year-old was a third-round pick of the Blackhawks in 2020 and had his collegiate career with Notre Dame end yesterday after Michigan eliminated him and the Fighting Irish in the Big 10 Tournament. The South Bend, Indiana native ended his stint at Notre Dame with a 20-goal, 31-point showing in 36 games, both of which were career highs.

Slaggert is already decorated internationally, capturing the gold medal as a depth forward with Team USA at the 2021 World Juniors. He returned to the team for the 2022 tournament where he was among their best, posting six points in five games while serving as an alternate captain.

A speedy forward with decent size (6-foot, 190 lbs), Slaggert can play both wing and center but likely slots in at left wing at the NHL level. The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler left Slaggert out of Chicago’s top 15 prospects in his latest pipeline ranking in February, while Dobber Prospects lists him as their fourth-best left-wing prospect. If he hits his long-term ceiling, he’s a good fit on a two-way third-line that can be relied upon for depth scoring and checking situations. He has a decent shot but will likely be most effective in the pros with his ability to create puck retrievals out of board battles.

Slaggert will be an RFA when his ELC expires in 2025.

Blues Recall Matthew Kessel

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The Blues announced that they have recalled defenseman Matthew Kessel from AHL Springfield ahead of tomorrow’s game in Boston. St. Louis only has $485K in cap space, less than the $884K needed to add Kessel’s contract to the roster, so a corresponding transaction is coming in the form of a reassignment or LTIR placement. With no Blues out of the lineup due to injuries, the former is more likely.

Kessel, 23, will look to build on a decent stretch of NHL play earlier this season. Filling in for Justin Faulk when the veteran was out with a lower-body injury for much of January and February, the right-shot youngster notched two assists and a -4 rating in 22 games while logging 17:25 per game. The Phoenix-born blue-liner is in his third season of pro hockey after signing his entry-level deal with St. Louis in 2022.

The 2020 fifth-round pick is in the final season of that contract, which pays him $832.5K in the NHL and $80K in the minors, along with a $92.5K signing bonus paid out last summer. A pending restricted free agent with arbitration rights, Kessel also has two goals, seven points, and a +1 rating in 34 games with Springfield.

Bringing up Kessel burns the second of the Blues’ four post-deadline standard recalls. They used the first of them on 2021 first-round pick Zachary Bolduc, who they briefly ferried to Springfield to make him eligible for the AHL’s postseason, just after the 2 p.m. CT Friday cutoff.

Kessel’s possession numbers weren’t much to write home about in his NHL stint, posting a 43.2 CF% at even strength and a 40.7 xGF% despite receiving more offensive zone time than you’d expect from someone in a shutdown role. Nonetheless, he’s been on a solid development track in the minors will get a few more chances to show he can be an effective shot-suppression talent.

Senators Notes: Bernard-Docker, Kubalik, Belleville

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The Ottawa Senators had a quiet deadline – only moving winger Vladimir Tarasenko – but it wasn’t from lack of trying, with Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun reporting that teams called about defenseman Jacob Bernard-Docker but weren’t willing to pay Ottawa’s high asking price. What that asking price was isn’t clear, though there’s no doubt that Ottawa highly values their former first-round pick, despite his struggles at the top level. Garrioch added that Ottawa likely wasn’t eager to move the 23-year-old, happy to continue letting him grow now in a full-time NHL role. Bernard-Docker, the 26th overall pick in the 2018 NHL Draft, is still searching for a groove in the league, with just four goals and 12 points in 53 games this season. It’s his first full season in the NHL, entering the season with just 32 career games across the last three years.

Other Senators trade notes:

  • Garrioch also reports that Ottawa continued to try and find a trade for winger Dominik Kubalik, who the team has been shopping around since December. Garrioch adds that Kubalik will likely be out the door when he becomes an unrestricted free agent on July 1st. The 28-year-old winger has 10 goals and 14 points in 58 games this season, netting double digit goals for the fifth-straight season, despite a down-year in overall production. Kubalik has managed 92 goals and 175 points across 341 career NHL games.
  • Tarasenko’s move opened up space on the Senators lineup that the team hopes to fill creatively. While they did claim bottom-six staple Boris Katchouk off of waivers, Senators general manager Steve Staios shared that the team could give top Belleville Senators prospects – including Tyler Kleven, Zack Ostapchuk, and Oskar Pettersson – a chance at the majors as well. He told Garrioch, “All of those players have progressed nicely. They’re worthy of an opportunity to play.” Ottawa currently sits second-to-last in the Eastern Conference, with just 25 wins on the season. With a quiet deadline not providing much change, they could be well-poised to try out their top young names.

Logan O’Connor To Undergo Hip Surgery, Out For Season

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Avalanche winger Logan O’Connor will undergo hip surgery this week and will not return this season, Ryan Boulding of NHL.com reports. O’Connor, who last played on March 4, has been dealing with the injury for most of the season, head coach Jared Bednar said.

Bednar issued multiple other injury updates Sunday, confirming that veteran winger Zach Parise is day-to-day with a lower-body injury and that Ross Colton, Jack Johnson and Artturi Lehkonen did not practice due to illness but will travel with the team on their upcoming four-game road trip. Depth center Chris Wagner, who sat out Friday’s game against the Wild with an upper-body injury, will be available on the trip if needed, Bednar said.

Before exiting the lineup last week, O’Connor missed a four-game stretch in February and a two-game stretch in November with a lower-body injury. Bednar’s comments imply that O’Connor sustained the initial injury as late as Nov. 20, the game immediately prior to his first absence of the season.

Despite the injury, O’Connor has managed the best season of his career and was a necessary stabilizing force with many Avalanche depth forwards either missing significant time or underperforming. He managed 13 goals, 12 assists and 25 points in 57 games, a career-best 0.44 points per game pace, although he’d failed to get on the scoresheet in his last seven games.

Aside from his point totals, O’Connor also recorded career-highs in ATOI (14:57) while putting up good even-strength possession stats (54.5 CF%, 54.3 xGF%) in shutdown usage. He was also a significant part of the Avs’ top-10 penalty kill, averaging 2:17 per game.

Luckily for Colorado, GM Chris MacFarland went big-game hunting at the trade deadline. Their acquisitions of Casey Mittelstadt and Sean Walker will draw the most attention, but a targeted move to snag Yakov Trenin from the Predators should help balance out O’Connor’s absence. The 27-year-old Trenin hasn’t scored at O’Connor’s rate this year, posting 14 points in 61 games, but he does have double-digit goal totals and is comfortable in defensive usage and penalty-kill scenarios. He’ll slot seamlessly into the third-line right wing O’Connor was projected to occupy behind Valeri Nichushkin and Mikko Rantanen down the stretch and in the postseason.

O’Connor is in the second season of a three-year, $3.15MM extension signed with the Avs in 2021 that began in the 2022-23 season. He costs $1.05MM against the cap, which the Avalanche could use to increase their financial flexibility down the stretch by placing him on LTIR, but are unlikely to do so with a $2.1MM cushion still remaining from Pavel Francouz’s and Gabriel Landeskog’s combined $9MM cap hits.

Devils Recall Nolan Foote From Conditioning Stint

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Left winger Nolan Foote led the New Jersey Devils onto the practice sheet today as he was officially recalled from his AHL conditioning stint. Foote has been working his way back from a preseason upper-body injury that held him out until February 26th, when he was assigned to the Utica Comets. Foote has appeared in four games with Utica, scoring three goals and four points. He’ll now have a chance to establish himself in the NHL, back with the Devils for the first time since late March of last season.

Foote is still new to his professional career, making his AHL debut in the 2020-21 season. He’s since spent the majority of his time in the minors, including 55 games in each of the last two seasons, though he’s received six or seven NHL games every year. In total, he’s managed 86 points across 134 career AHL games, on top of five goals and seven points in 19 NHL games.

Foote’s return comes at an apt time, coming right after the team traded top-scoring winger Tyler Toffoli to the Winnipeg Jets. That’s left a hole in the lineup that’s currently being filled by utility player Kurtis MacDermid, who has just two goals in 33 games this season. Foote should be able to compete for that role, though he’ll need to take advantage of his opportunity, with the Devils on the tail ends of the playoff race.

Pittsburgh Penguins Share Multiple Injury Updates

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Pittsburgh Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan has shared multiple injury updates, most notably designating top-line winger Bryan Rust as a game-time decision on Sunday. Rust has missed Pittsburgh’s last seven games with an upper-body injury that earned him a place on injured reserve. It was the second time Rust has landed on IR this season, previously missing three weeks with another upper-body injury. The absences have limited Rust to just 42 of Pittsburgh’s 62 games this season – though he’s proven impactful when he does play, managing 36 points, split evenly, through 42 games.

Rust is on the cusp of reaching the 20-goal mark for the fifth-straight season – a streak he kicked off with a career-high 27 goals in just 55 games in 2019-20. While he hasn’t crossed 25 goals since that year, Rust has proven incredibly consistent, serving as a staple on Sidney Crosby’s line for much of his career. His return will carry extra weight than usual, as the Penguins have dealt away the final member of their top line: Jake Guentzel, who was traded to the Carolina Hurricanes for Michael Bunting, three prospects, and a first-round and fifth-round pick in 2024.

Sullivan also shared that forward Matthew Nieto is continuing to rehab from knee surgery. Nieto hasn’t played a game since November 30th, shifting to IR in December and long-term injured reserve in January. He was designated as out for six to eight weeks in early January, putting him on track for a return in mid-to-late March. Nieto has played just 22 games with the Penguins, scoring four points, since signing a two-year, $1.8MM contract with the team this summer.

Finally, the Penguins shared that Drew O’Connor has returned to skating after bearing with a concussion that’s held him out of the team’s last two games. O’Connor suffered the injury in Pittsburgh’s Tuesday game against the Columbus Blue Jackets, leaving after the first period. He had previously played in 60 games this season, scoring a career-high nine goals and 21 points. It’s O’Connor’s first year off the fourth line, after playing in 46 games and scoring 11 points in a depth role last season.

Rangers Sign Louis Domingue To One-Year Extension

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The New York Rangers have signed veteran goaltender Louis Domingue to a one-year, one-way extension. The deal will carry a league-minimum $775K salary, per Renauld Lavoie of TVA Sports. This will continue Domingue’s tenure with the Rangers, after the netminder signed a two-year, $1.5MM deal with the club in the summer of 2022.

Domingue didn’t play in the NHL at all last season – marking the first time since the 2013-14 season that he was absent from the league. His debut with the Rangers didn’t come until November 9th of this season, when he saved 25 of 26 shots en route to a 4-1 win over the Minnesota Wild. Domingue has otherwise spent all season in the minor leagues, where he’s managed 13 wins and a .910 save percentage in 24 games. He’s continued to perform well after posting 22 wins and a .911 in 45 games last year – serving as the Hartford Wolf Pack’s starter over prospect Dylan Garand. Those roles have since shifted this season, with the 21-year-old Garand barely beating out Domingue for the starter’s net, with the pair have working together to lead Hartford to a 29 wins in 54 games. They rank fourth in the AHL’s Atlantic Division and ninth in the league.

The Rangers mark the seventh team of Domingue’s career, making him one of the NHL’s biggest journeymen. Much of his career has been spent as a backup option or depth recall, though, with Domingue’s only seasons of 30 or more games coming in the 2015-16 and 2016-17 seasons. He recorded 39 and 31 games respectively in those years, adding a .912 and .908 save percentage. While big years, they weren’t enough to land Domingue a consistent role, with a trade to the Tampa Bay Lightning kicking off his third-string placement. He has totaled 143 career games across nine different seasons, managing 60 wins and a commendable .905 save percentage. He will likely remain a depth option for the Rangers, though his veteran presence could prove invaluable as the Rangers approach a long playoff run.

Latest On Linus Ullmark

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After reports emerged yesterday that Bruins netminder Linus Ullmark nixed a trade to the Kings via his 16-team no-trade clause, GM Don Sweeney told reporters that he “wasn’t that aggressive” about moving his 2023 Vezina Trophy winner (via Matt Porter of the Boston Globe). Nonetheless, it doesn’t appear Los Angeles was the only team Sweeney spoke to about moving out half of the league’s best tandem. Multiple clubs not on Ullmark’s no-trade list engaged in discussions about the netminder and are likely to circle back over the summer, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet said on “Saturday Headlines.”

Ullmark, 30, will remain with the Bruins through the end of the season and the playoffs, but the likelihood of him finishing out his current deal in Boston seems to be diminishing as interest continues to rise. He carries a $5MM cap hit through next season and will be a UFA in the summer of 2025. His 16-team no-trade list will downgrade to a 15-team list on July 1.

The start counter between him and creasemate Jeremy Swayman remains relatively even, although his counterpart has a slight edge, 35-30. Ullmark’s numbers are far worse than last season’s league-leading performance, although still significantly above average with a .909 SV%, 2.77 GAA, and 9.4 goals saved above expected, per MoneyPuck. It’s becoming clear that Swayman, among the league’s best with a .922 SV%, will be their starter to begin the postseason.

Boston needs to free up some money for what will likely be a long-term extension for Swayman over the summer. A pending RFA with arbitration rights, Sweeney would love to avoid an arbitration scenario with Swayman for a second straight year. He carries a $3.475MM cap hit this season but will command a significant raise after wrestling away the starting role from Ullmark.

The Bruins have $22.5MM in projected cap space next season with a roster size of 15, so their flexibility isn’t zero. If they want to go big-game hunting in free agency to address their deficiency at center and continuously thinning overall forward depth, though, freeing up Ullmark’s $5MM would be a wise move. They’d also capitalize on his trade value over the offseason rather than as a deadline rental next year, as teams would be willing to pay more for a full year of his services rather than a few months and a playoff run.

Flames Recall Matthew Coronato, Jakob Pelletier

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The Flames recalled wingers Matthew Coronato and Jakob Pelletier before today’s game against the Panthers, per CapFriendly. Both were ferried to the AHL’s Calgary Wranglers on deadline day to make them eligible to suit up in the Calder Cup Playoffs. With ample cap space, no corresponding transactions were necessary.

Coronato, a 5-foot-10 rookie, gets his fourth recall of the season and his second this month. Calgary made him the 13th overall pick in the 2021 draft coming out of the USHL’s Chicago Steel, followed by two seasons at Harvard before signing his entry-level deal in March of last year. He’s been one of the best rookie performers in the minor leagues this season, notching 42 points and a +8 rating in 40 games with the Wranglers, leading them in scoring by a wide margin.

The Flames’ top forward prospect, Coronato will need to battle to remain in the Flames’ lineup as they try and make a miracle playoff run once A.J. Greer and Connor Zary are ready to return from injuries. Both are expected back by the end of the month. He’s fared decently in 16 games with the big club this year, scoring a goal and three assists with a -5 rating while averaging 14:03 per game. Perhaps his best professional outing came just prior to the deadline in a 6-3 win over the Lightning on Thursday, in which he recorded an assist and a +3 rating. His possession metrics have improved from an early-season lull, recording a 51.3 CF% at even strength and a 48.6 xGF%.

Pelletier, 23, was a first-rounder two years before Coronato. A shoulder injury cost him most of the season to date, but he’s notched three points in four games with the Wranglers and three points in nine games with the Flames since returning in January. He’ll slot into a top-six role alongside Nazem Kadri and Andrei Kuzmenko and, like Coronato, will need to show dependability to remain in the lineup ahead of Greer and Zary if they remain in the playoff hunt over the next few weeks.

These transactions were not made under emergency conditions, according to CapFriendly, so the Flames have used up half of their four post-deadline standard recalls. Thus, expect Coronato and Pelletier to remain on the roster – even if they fall out of the lineup – through the end of the season unless unforeseen cap complications force the Flames to reassign them.

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